Tymora, Goddess of Luck and Good Fortune
Lady Luck, Our Smiling Lady
Tymora is the bright-faced goddess of fortune, the one to whom gamblers and game-players pray. Our Smiling Lady is said to love none so much as those who gamble with the utmost skill and daring. Yet she is thought to watch over all who take risks to better their fortunes.
The battle cry of the followers of Tymora is “Fortune favors the bold.” Someone might say words to Tymora before any endeavor in which a little good luck would help, but not when an incidence of bad luck might occur. (On such occasions folk pray to Beshaba to spare them from bad luck; praying to both is thought to anger both goddesses.) One common method of divining the future is to toss a coin to a stranger (typically a beggar) and ask if it’s heads. If it is, the coin is left with the stranger as payment for Tymora’s favor. If it’s not, the stranger can choose to keep it (and the bad luck) or return it.
Those who favor Tymora — as distinct from folk who invoke her name by mumbling over the dice — tend to be daring sorts. Adventurers and gamblers make up much of their ranks. They all have the belief that what is good about their lives is the result of having both good luck and the bravery to seek it out. Tymora has worshipers among all sorts of folk: the dashing young noble, the risk-taking merchant, the daydreaming field hand, and the scheming ne’er-do-well.
Priests of Tymora and temples devoted to Lady Luck are scarce, since her faith tends not to stress a need for intermediaries: “Let the lucky man and the Smiling Lady suss it out,” as the old saying goes. Shrines to Tymora at gambling parlors aren’t unusual, however, and sometimes such establishments attract a priest and effectively become temples.
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